With just 3 days left for voter regn, citizens’ groups reach out to housing societies

Pune: District election officials on Wednesday urged citizens to verify their names on electoral rolls and complete re-registration process, in case of missing names, over the next three days to avoid any surprises on the voting day (Nov 20) for the state assembly election.
During the Lok Sabha election held earlier this year, several voters had found their names missing at polling booths during last-minute checks.
With the voter registration window closing 10 days before the Oct 29 nomination deadline for the assembly poll, officials have set Oct 19 as the cut-off date for name checks and re-registration. "We have appealed to the citizens to check their names through the housing society representatives, rather than wait for the voting day," a district election official said.
The National Society of Clean Cities, a citizens' group, is reaching out to housing societies and urging their members to check their names in the electoral roll. The group is also helping society members re-register, if their names are missing from the voters' list.
A member of the group, Rohan Desai, has already sent out messages on social media requesting citizens to check their names. "We have been working on voter awareness since Ganeshotsav. We even reached out to several Ganapati mandals and helped the election office to increase voter registration," Desai said.
Housing society federation members roped in
Suhas Patwardhan, chairman of the Pune district cooperative housing societies and apartments federation, told TOI that the members had held meetings with several representatives in various areas and urged them to reach out to voters to ensure that there were no missing names. "With the window of registration being just three days away, they are sending messages to all the groups to ensure that no voter is left out," he said.
The district will have 126 housing societies with polling centres on their premises. "We are also ensuring that there are "Sahakar Mitras" to help voters at these centres at the time of polling," he said.
Pune collector Suhas Diwase, while noting urban voter apathy as a concern, emphasised on the importance of early name verification on electoral rolls. He said of the 8,417 polling stations, around 126 were in key housing societies. "We are trying our best to ensure that voters are not inconvenienced in any way. Ward offices will have helpline numbers to allow voters check their names and polling stations. Special focus is on low turnout polling stations. ECI has been stringent on assured minimum facilities at all polling stations," Diwase added.